Opinions

A recent hot topic within our circle is the competition for medical students between the two medical schools.

Instead of telling you what I think (which I'm afraid you may be quite sick of), let me show you some posts from Mark Zukerberg's country:

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"When I was reading all these news about the new "medic degrees" the two universities offering, I just remembered that I would not know if I wanted to become a doctor when I was 17/18 year-old, let alone a health policy-maker, a clinician-scientist and a medical lawyer. (of course there are people that are very determined about these things)... Why wouldn't you let students decide when they have been exposed to the fields and figured out what they actually like... If they want to, I don't really think it is that hard for a medical student/graduate to pursuit a degree in research/public health/law. And now, they are just trying to divide the cohort into different streams on the first day of medical school without good reasons..."

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"I don't understand why admission to medical schools becomes a competition. What are they looking for? Are they looking for high admission scores to boast of in front of parents, or are they looking for people devoted to the medical career? I just want to study medicine. Don't really care who is winning and where I am studying... Is there really a big difference? I doubt it."

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“做醫生除左要有心，能力一樣重要。醫科唔單只難入，即使你狀元成績入到嚟都唔代表你可以順利畢業。呢個世界唔係人人都做到醫生，入唔到既唔好質疑其他成績好過你既人有冇你幫人既心。”

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"我估計那個competition是指兩所醫學院在收生方面的競爭。醫科入學成績固然斐然；但是大學仍希望取錄最優等的學生，不但是因為考試成績能估算一個同學能完成整個醫學課程的能力，也希望畢業同學可以為大學發揮更大影響力。話雖如此，醫學院應確保課程教與學都具良好質素。當絕大多數醫學院學生由醫管局醫生指導，大學教授卻埋首研究，這是個合理的現象嗎？"

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"現時公開考試是否一個最好的制度去衡量一個人的能力，都是一個問題。這個考試中很低分的人，當然可能是能力比較低，做事懶惰，也可能是家庭沒有資源，加上學校環境惡劣，以致學生難以正常發展。如果你捐助他讀書，給他機會去讀好的學校，朋友圈子唔同，人都會唔同。
考試比較高分的朋友，我們都只是幸運而已，你覺得A和B, 5**和5*差距很多嗎? 未必。為什麼你有A/5**? 只是可能你遇上一個鬆手少少的考官，或者是一個很欣賞你思維的考官，所以你才拿下這個分數。
(這個test 可能很sensitive，但一點也不specific.)
在5**/5*的差距 同 做人的深度差距之間去衡量，我想這才是醫學院要思考的問題。 我們爭取最高成績的學生，只是因為成績是唯一比較客觀的指標，但有能力的人不代表他是最出色的人，有更多的成功要素是沒法衡量的，例如待人接物的態度，處世為人 等等... 醫學院不應只著眼在高分中的最高分那些人，而是想辦法找出有更多其他潛能或特質的學生。這些潛能同特質很可能比考試拿多一個A更重要。"